Their next Kuhn: Celtic reach agreement to sign "dangerous" star

Excitement is starting to build amongst Celtic supporters ahead of the new season.

Kieran Tierney’s return to Glasgow was confirmed last week, and fans cannot wait to see their beloved homegrown hero bedecked in green and white hoops again.

It’s safe to say the transfer window is really starting to take shape for Brendan Rodgers’ Celtic side.

Indeed, despite the arrival of Tierney, the Bhoys have an interest in signing Liverpool’s Andy Robertson while another defender, this time of Japanese origin, could also join.

Talks are reportedly underway to sign Hayato Inamura from J League club Albirex Niigata but he’s not the only player Celtic appear to be in conversations to sign.

Celtic targeting a new winger

According to a report by Anthony Joseph of Sky Sports News, Celtic have now ‘agreed’ a fee of £1.7m with Nordsjælland as they attempt to sign attacker Benjamin Nygren, adding that the Hoops ‘will now look to finalise’ the deal.

Joseph states that an agreement was reached on the player side last week and that talks have progressed well with the club since.

Given that the 23-year-old is out of contract with the Danish Superligaen side in December, Nygren is available for significantly lower than his estimated current market value of around £5m, making the agreed fee appear an absolute bargain.

The winger began his senior career with hometown club IFK Göteborg and, after unspectacular spells with Genk in Belgium and then Heerenveen in the Netherlands, he arrived at Nordsjælland in January 2022, with whom his career has really taken off.

Now, he’s set to become the 11th Swedish player to appear for Celtic, hoping to follow in the footsteps of club legends Mikael Lustig, Johan Mjällby and, of course, Henrik Larsson.

Benjamin Nygren​​​​​​​: the new Nicolas Kühn?

Similar to Nygren, Nicolas Kühn​​​​​​​ had bounced around numerous clubs at a young age, representing RB Leipzig, Jong Ajax, Bayern Munich Amateure, Erzgebirge Aue​​​​​​​ and Rapid Wien before joining Celtic for a reported fee of £3m in January 2024.

Well, the German has certainly found a home in Glasgow, exploding onto the scene this season, as the table below illustrates.

This end product led to Rodgers labelling Kühn’s performances as “outstanding“, while Michael Shearer of Breaking the Lines asserted that he is ‘poised to become’ the Celts’ ‘next great attacking player’.

This has seen a £25m price-tag placed on his head, with countless Premier League and Bundesliga clubs purportedly interested.

So, could Nygren have a similar impact upon his imminent arrival?

Well, let’s assess how the two wide-attackers compare to one-another.

As the table shows, Nygren was significantly more impressive at his previous club than Kühn was upon his own arrival, with Global Football Rankings actually rating the Superligaen (13th) nine places higher than the Austrian Bundesliga (22nd).

The 23-year-old’s form for Nordsjælland​​​​​​​ has seen him earn his Sweden debut earlier this year, featuring in all four of the Blågult’s friendlies so far in 2024, scoring against both Northern Ireland in Stockholm and Hungary at the Puskás Aréna earlier this month.

Analyst Will Glavin labels Nygren a “versatile​​​​​​​” attacker who possesses a “killer instinct in front of goal”, given his ability to appear in “dangerous areas” at the right time.

Meantime, Sakhu Mpofu of Total Football Analysis documents how, at his best, he “inverts into the centre’ from the right-flank, which could also be used to describe Kühn.

Thus, in short, Celtic supporters should be extremely excited about the arrival of the Swedish youngster.

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